Think Big. Start Small.

But Don't Forget to Notice the Progress

I was sitting at my computer yesterday feeling like I had failed. It was Friday afternoon and I had just had one of the biggest weeks since I started my business.

My first client had asked to extend my contract, I had signed another client after one phone call, a consortium I had been invited to join had found out we had won the contract, and a program I had launched had made meaningful commercial progress.

It had been a very good week, but instead of stopping to take any of that in, I was sitting there beating myself up.

My husband noticed my energy. After the week we had just had, it did not make sense to him that I seemed so flat, so he gently asked me what was wrong.

I told him I was disappointed that I still had not launched the website.

The strange thing was, I had been saying for months that the website was not the priority. I knew my first clients would come through my network. The website mattered, but it was not more important than doing good work, building trust and creating momentum.

I had let the one thing I had not done outweigh everything I had.

He said, “Rhody, that is about two percent of what you should be focused on right now. Look at what you have accomplished. You have been saying all along that the website is not going to be the source of the business at this stage. The things you have been focusing on are, and look at how far you have come.”

He was right. He was not telling me something I did not already know, but he was helping me see what I had stopped allowing myself to notice.

I was so focused on where I wanted to go that I had almost missed the evidence of the progress I had already made.

For almost thirty years, success was measured for me through commercial outcomes such as revenue, pipeline and growth. The scoreboard was clear. I knew what was expected of me, when it would be measured and whether I had delivered.

Now I set the goals, the pace and the measures of what good looks like. The website was one of those goals, and I had not delivered it when I told myself I would. That mattered, but it was only one measure.

I had not given myself permission to pause and recognise how far I had come in five short months. I was measuring everything against the one thing I had not completed.

When you lose sight of what matters, it is easy to feel like you are failing, even when the evidence says otherwise.

I have always thought big. I set ambitious goals because the size of the vision is part of what drives me. I can see what something could become, then work backwards to understand what needs to happen to build it.

But I also believe in starting small. That is how I have approached most of the things I have built throughout my career. Think big, start small, test what works, learn, improve and keep going. You do not wait until the whole vision can be delivered perfectly. You start with something you can execute and build from there.

What I had not considered was how easily a big goal can make real progress feel small.

When where you want to go is still a long way ahead, there is always more to do. Another idea to test, another relationship to build, another opportunity to create and another part of the business that is not ready yet. You can be making real progress and still feel behind because you are comparing where you are today with the full size of what you want to build.

What made the realisation even more uncomfortable was that I talk about leading indicators all the time. I regularly remind people not to wait for the final outcome before recognising that the work is moving in the right direction.

A better conversation, access to the right person, growing trust or a customer choosing to keep moving forward all matter because they tell you whether the work is working before the final result arrives.

Yet I had ignored my own evidence. The leading indicators had already become real outcomes. I was just too focused on that one thing that I had not done.

The evidence was right in front of me, but I was focused on the website because it was still sitting unfinished on my list.

One of the promises I made myself when I left corporate was that I would build this business slowly, deliberately and intentionally. I did not want to chase every opportunity. My approach is unique, and I want to listen carefully, test where I can create the most value, understand who is receptive to it and build around the problems I know I can solve.

That is what I have been doing.

The long-term vision still matters. It guides the decisions I am making now and gives me something meaningful to build towards. But the shorter-term indicators matter too because they show whether the strategy is working and whether the work is taking me closer to what I am trying to build.

Missing a goal does not automatically mean you are failing or falling behind. Sometimes something more important became the priority. Sometimes the strategy became clearer and the order needed to change. Sometimes the goal is still valid, but it does not deserve to erase the value of everything else you have achieved.

My website will be launched. It still matters and I still want it done. But it was not more important than building trusted relationships, doing good work and creating something people trust enough to keep coming back to.

Those things were not smaller tasks sitting underneath the real work. They were the business I was building.

Ambition has always driven me. I set a high bar for myself, put pressure on myself to deliver and take the commitments I make seriously. I do not want to lower that bar or shrink the size of what I believe I can build.

But I also have to remind myself not to become so focused on where I am going that I fail to recognise the progress I am making towards it.

When the vision is big, there may never be a point when everything feels finished. There will always be another stage, another opportunity and another version of what it could become. That is why recognising progress cannot wait until you arrive. You have to notice it while you are building.

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Nugget in Action

Define the long-term goal, but also define the signs that will tell you the work is moving in the right direction.

Do not wait for the final outcome before recognising progress. Leading indicators matter.

When you feel behind, ask yourself what you are measuring and what evidence you may be overlooking.

Be honest about the unfinished work. Did you avoid it, or did something more valuable deserve your attention?

Do not use one missed milestone to judge the whole journey.

Think big. Start small.

But don’t forget to notice the progress.

What I’d love to know

Have you ever caught yourself measuring everything by the one thing you had not done?